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Starting a mage
Note to editors More work is needed still, but please try to keep it relatively short; more advanced topics should go into the Mage Tactics area, or somewhere linked from there. -- Goldark 08:47, 21 Nov 2004 (EST) Introduction So, you're thinking of playing a Mage? This page is intended to give a short overview of what to do over the first 10 levels or so, just to get you started on the right path. If you're looking for more of an overview of the class's abilities, see the main mage page. For more advanced topics, see the Mage Tactics. For a more general overview on starting out playing WoW, see the Newbie Guide Race Selection If you're a power-player, you'll want to consider the various Racial Traits when choosing what race to play. You might also consider the racial stats, but after the first 20 levels or so these become largely irrelevant, as the items you've gained will far outstrip any racial bonuses. For more casual gamers, there's really no major difference between the races - choose the race that you want to play, whether for its looks, its voice, or because its simply good fun! Early Leveling The easiest way to progress through the early levels is to simply do any and all of the quests you can find. Not only will you breeze through the first 5 to 10 levels, but you'll get useful gear and precious money. Money is particulary important so you can purchase your spells. You will spend levels 1 to 5 in your starting town. Make sure you get all the abilities and spells you can from your trainer. Between level 5 and 6 you'll find yourself heading off to your second town and a new trainer who can teach you various things. At the second town, repeat the process - do each and every quest you can find. It's important to keep up with your abilities and your gear. Now is also an appropriate time to start training in your chosen professions. Notable Early Quests '' The intention is to link into the Quests page here with a few low-level quests once they are added, with particular emphasis on including quests with nice mage rewards, and any mage-specific quests. No real need to include the very basic starting quests as everybody will see those easily enough -- Goldark'' The following lists are not intended to be comprehensive, but cover a selection of the best quests in the starting areas from levels 1 to 10. Gnomes * Quest 1 * Quest 2 * etc Humans * Brotherhood of Thieves - nice early staff reward Night Elves * Quest 1 Orcs/Trolls * Quest 1 Undead * Quest 1 On Soloing and Grouping Soloing For the first 10 levels, the Mage shouldn't have much trouble soloing up to two mobs at a time around your level. Your primary damage comes from using fireball and fireblast. Fireblast is insta-cast, so for the best DPS you want to be using this spell whenever its available. Frost bolt is useful as an opening move because it slows the mob down, but beware that if you cast a fire spell it will overwrite any frost-based effects. Always keep your buffs on. Frost Armour not only gives you more armour, but also slows down attacking mobs. Arcane Intellect boosts your [Intellect, meaning you've more mana, and a higher chance to crit. Finally, don't be afraid to use your staff to whack mobs over the head. During the early levels this can be a significant form of damage, and additionally its good to wade into the thick of things to keep your defense skills up. Grouping Grouping isn't all that different from soloing. The main difference is that you'll annoy your group mates when you continually anihilate mobs before they can get more than a swing or two in! Remember to "assist" the Warrior or Paladin if you have one in your group, to ensure you focus your party's firepower on one mob. You can do this by selecting the tank (use the F1-F5 keys to target group members) and then pressing "F". This way, mobs will die faster. If you don't have a tank in the group, agree amonst yourselves who to assist. Although its not all that important now, its an important habit to get used to for later levels. Useful Professions The mage can benefit directly and indirectly from many of the professions available. Primary Professions * Herbalism & Alchemy : Herbalism and Alchemy are fairly useful for the mage, and are essentially two Primary Professions that go hand in hand. Herbalism allows the gathering of various herbs, and the Alchemy profession allows the creation of various potions for use. Health potions will often save your life, mana potions instantly restore some mana, and there are also potions of defense, agility, regen potions and more. * Engineering & Mining : Engineering is pretty useful for any class - but as a mage its perhaps less useful than for others. After all, you don't need dynamite with your mage spells. Best coupled with mining, as it is heavily reliant on metals. However, most engineering items require engineering to use, so you're less likely to make lots of money from this trade. (Guns are one notable exception to this) * Tailoring : A most useful mage profession! Not only can you make bags which are always popular, but you can also craft yourself your own garments. As a cloth-user, the tailoring skill will allow you to create most of the items you need to wear. * Enchanting : Enchanting just naturally seems to go with a mage, after all you are the master of the arcane. It also makes a good profession in tandem with Tailoring, as they do not rely on gathering skills. Enchanting allows you to add magical enchantments to boost the statistics of weapons and armour. However, you do need to disenchant existing magical items in order to get the magic components you'll require. This can be an expensive business! * Herbalism/Skinning/Mining : If you don't go for one of the typical pairings, you may just want to grab herbalism, skinning or mining and use them to sell resources for straight profit. Start your profession early! It's usually not too expensive, and you want to ensure that the gear you create with your skills is applicable to your warrior's level. Secondary Professions * Cooking * Fishing * First Aid As a mage, you can summon all the food and drink you'll ever need. This makes cooking and fishing fairly redundant - nevertheless, they are free though, so there's no harm in picking up the basics. First Aid is of some limited use to a mage, as it can really reduce your down-time between fights when soloing, and can also help reduce the strain on your healers when in a group. However, mana is more likely to be the limiting factor in your downtime, rather than health. Long-Term Goals Unlike a melee class, mages are not very depenent on gear. Rather, you should ensure you have enough money to afford all your spells (the teleport spells, at level 20 and then 40, are very expensive), and focus on levelling up. Decide where you want to go with your Mage Talents, as these can make a big difference to the way you'll play your mage past level 10. You may also want to consider training a 1-handed weapon such as a dagger or sword if you prefer to be able to hold an item in your off-hand too. See Mage Tactics for more advanced information on Mages, taking you beyond the first 10 levels. ---- Go to: Mage Classes